By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Karachi : At least 133 people were left dead and 500 injured in twin bomb blasts targeting the rally of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan’s largest city hours after she returned to the country from eight years of exile.
The bombs went off only yards away from the bulletproof truck that was carrying Bhutto to the tomb of Pakistan’s founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, where she was due to address a rally Friday morning.
While the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairperson escaped unhurt, two of her close aides were injured in the blasts. PPP leader Fauzia Wahab said that Bhutto was preparing her speech inside the truck when blasts occurred.
Following the blasts, the rally was immediately cancelled.
“She was immediately shifted to her residence by the security people after the blasts,” Wahab, who was travelling with Bhutto in the truck at the time of the blasts, told IANS.
Bhutto Thursday arrived from Dubai after entering a power sharing deal with the increasingly unpopular President Pervez Musharraf that could catapult her to power in the general elections due in January.
Massive security arrangements were in place for her homecoming as pro-Taliban clerics have threatened to kill her for supporting the US-led war on terror.
PPP leaders claimed that more than three million people took part in Bhutto’s procession to Jinnah’s mausoleum Mazar-e-Quaid but independent observers put the figure at far less. However, there were hundreds of people surrounding the two-time prime minister’s cavalcade when the blasts occurred.
First a small bomb exploded on the left side of the truck, which many mistook for a tyre burst. While people were trying to find out the exact cause of the blast, there was a massive explosion on the right side of the truck that claimed several lives, eyewitnesses and police said.
Hospital sources said that 133 dead bodies were brought to different hospitals while there were more than 500 people were injured, including two PPP leaders – Makhddom Amin Fahim and Begum Abida Hussain.
Reports said that 20 policemen were among those killed in the blast.
PPP leader Yousaf Raza Gillani said that Bhutto was in shock over loss of lives but she will continue her mission to rid the country of terrorists. “She is an iron lady and such incidents cannot block her way. But definitely she is shocked, she is sad over loss of lives,” said Gillani.
Musharraf immediately condemned the blasts and ordered the security agencies to enhance Bhutto’s security.
Javed Iqbal Cheema, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said that Bhutto has been asked to remain inside her residence until her complete safety is ensured. He said that more than 5,000 security officials were deployed for Bhutto but “it’s always very hard to block the suicide bombers”.
Governments of several countries and the United Nations were quick to condemn the blasts.
The daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir became one of the first democratically elected female prime ministers in an Islamic country in 1988. Her regime collapsed in 1990.
She again became prime minister in 1993 and ruled for three years. On both occasions, her governance was accompanied by charges of corruption against her and her husband Asif Zardari.
Bhutto left Pakistan in 1999 to live abroad shortly after her conviction by the Supreme Court.